A Typical Day in the Life of Neville Longbottom
by CakeTwins
Summary: Neville survives yet another clumsy, disaster-prone day with as much grace as he can possibly muster. Second installment of my 'Day in the Life of' series.


Author's Note: I've been trying to write another 'Day in the Life of' fic for a while, but I hadn't produced anything I considered worth posting. Finally, I have something I enjoy. :) So I hope that you all like it too, and tell me what you think. I had originally intended to have a Weasley's series of fics, but that just didn't seem to be working. So here's Neville.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. It's all JK Rowling's. All of it.

Neville sighed as he checked his class schedule. Double Potions, just his luck. It wasn't bad enough that Draco Malfoy had humiliated him (yet again) in front of the entire Great Hall by "accidentally" spilling a bowl of porridge on his head, now he had to face his worst fear for two whole hours.

It wasn't Neville's fault that he was hopelessly bad at Potions. He tried, he really did. He did every assignment, studied during his free time, and even enlisted Hermione Granger's help on a regular basis. But nothing seemed to make a difference. He was doomed to fail.

"Come on Neville, time for lunch!" called Ron Weasley from the other side of the Common Room. He was waiting with his sister, Ginny, and Harry Potter. Neville followed them out of the portrait hole, dragging his bag behind him.

"I hope we're having something good today, I didn't get very much to eat at breakfast," Ginny said as the group made their way down the corridor.

"Yeah, me either," mumbled Neville grimacing at the memory of his half-eaten porridge sliding down the neck of his jumper.

"Neville, you just need to stand up to Malfoy one of these days – stop letting him push you around!" Ron declared.

"Well it isn't like I'm asking to have my breakfast poured down my back, it's just that I – ouch!" He tripped over the strap of book bag and tumbled down a few steps before Ginny grabbed his arm and stopped him from falling any further.

"That looked like it might leave a mark…" Harry winced.

"I'll just add it to my collection then." Neville pulled up a sleeve and displayed a number of deep purple bruises. "Just a typical day… tripping, falling, forgetting passwords, getting humiliated… and so life goes." Ginny smiled sympathetically, put her arm around his shoulders and gave him a little squeeze.

"Buck up, hey? It might turn out to be a better day than you think!"

He managed to get through lunch without any major mishaps, but Murphy and his bloody law caught up with him soon enough.

"Longbottom!" Neville stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Er, yes Professor?"

"Remember, you have your presentation today with Finnigan. I hope you've got everything ready for it." As she turned and walked away, a student came hurtling towards him.

"Neville I'm _so sorry!" _Seamus Finnigan was holding on to his sleeve, looking as if his Judgement Day had arrived. "I saw McGonagall talking to you, and that made me think of our presentation, and that reminded me that I was supposed to… oh Neville, I'm _really _sorry…"

Tally for the day - Neville: 0, World: 8,971.

_At least it cannot be possible for this day to get any worse, _Neville thought to himself as he slid into his seat in Potions.

"I trust you have all memorized the ingredients and steps necessary to concoct a Seeping Potion, used by stoneworkers and cauldron makers to burn through impenetrable materials." Professor Snape swept into the room, smirking darkly at his students. Neville felt himself shrink a little bit in his chair. He'd studied this potion furiously – it was common knowledge that Snape tested on this every year, and any chance Snape got to humiliate Neville, he took.

_Limestone extract, two drops in left side of cauldron, half flask of Firewhiskey mixed with three grains of flint, simmer for exactly two and a half minutes, add the Dragon toenails, then stir counter-clockwise until… _Neville concentrated hard on trying to remember the steps to mixing the potion, and wasn't listening to what Professor Snape was asking the class.

"…So since Potter obviously won't know the answer to this question, perhaps I ought to direct it to a more… _promising _student. Longbottom!" Neville jerked back to attention. "After the ground root of pepperwood is added, at what heat should the mixture be brought to, and for how long?"

_Here it is… the final blow._

"Um… er, boil for… sev – er, _six_ minutes, and bring to a low simmer for…two? Sir?" Neville hoped no one could see his hands shaking. He avoided looking at Snape – his glare was what really terrified Neville. He stared at his table and waited for the reprimand. But it didn't come.

Neville chanced a terrified peep to his right. Hermione was looking at him with a funny, almost amused expression on her face, Ron stared in what appeared to be disbelief, and Harry was grinning broadly, his eyes flicking back and forth between Neville and Professor Snape.

Snape. Neville really didn't want to look at him. But the silence was almost more unbearable than the usual scathing remark. _Look up. Look at him. Just see what he's doing… _Neville willed himself to raise his eyes up to his teacher.

He was starting at Neville intently, with an expression much like Hermione's, only filled with more astonishment than amusement.

"Ahem." Snape cleared his throat and walked back to his desk to shift some papers. "Correct." Neville's heart nearly jumped into his throat. "However, _um-ing _and _er-ing _for as long as you did might cause you to forget which ingredient?" Hermione's hand shot up in the air as usual. "I'm asking Mr. Longbottom, and if you don't stop waiving that hand around right now, Gryffindor will lose five points for impertinence." She slowly lowered her hand, and turned to look encouragingly at Neville.

Thoughts were flying through his head faster than Harry on a broomstick, and not all of them about Potions, either. But Neville somehow managed to push most of them aside, and tried desperately to remember the right ingredient.

"Take your time, I imagine you have to dig around quite deep in there," the professor smirked. Someone in the back of the room snickered.

Neville took a deep breath. "It would be, uh, the salamander teeth. Sir. One-quarter ounce…?" Neville heard a joyful laugh, and expected to be sent out of the room, or forced to mix the potion then and there in front of everyone… or something along those lines.

"Correct again. Five points to Gryffindor for knowing how to study, and class is dismissed early today."

Draco Malfoy pushed into Neville as he stalked furiously out of the room. Still stunned by this sudden turn of events, Neville called out loudly. "Watch it, Malfoy." The blonde-haired boy turned angrily, but before he could say anything, Harry and Dean Thomas had slid up next to Neville, and Draco, outnumbered, turned and left.

"Way to go, Neville! I can't believe it! Do you even know what you just did? You got points for Gryffindor during _Potions! _Do you have any idea how long it's been since that's happened?" Harry was gleefully propelling him out of the room.

"Yeah, that had to be the best Potions class I can remember!" Ron exclaimed, bounding up behind them. "Of course, Snape will hate you all the more for it tomorrow, but still!"

Neville slowly started to grin. For the first time in his life, he was one up on Snape. So this is what it felt like to be Harry, able to snap scathing comebacks and really _earn _Professor Snape's deep hatred. His grin widened, and he nodded along with the other boys' comments.

"Yeah, I guess Ginny was right. Today didn't turn out so bad after all!"


End file.
